Taking a shower is difficult for a wheelchair-bound person. Yet it's even more challenging when the person goes on travel, such as visiting family and friends, or receiving medical treatment away from home. A portable shower stall would be useful under those circumstances. Homecare professionals would also find the stall useful as they can take it to their customers' home and provide bathing assistance.
There are several types of prior arts addressing the showering needs of invalids.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,757,561 demonstrated a portable platform that can be put into the shower pan of a conventional shower stall. The platform would raise the floor elevation. A ramp is connected to the platform. The combination of platform and ramp would provide access for a wheelchair. The usefulness of this prior art is limited by the fact that a typical shower stall simply does not have the proper physical size to allow a wheelchair to be rolled in.
US Publication No. 20080040851 represents another type of shower stalls that usually involve a rigid shower pan for waste water containment and a frame structure mechanically fastened to the shower pan to form a shower enclosure. In this prior art, a hollow but rigid shower base is proposed. Wheelchair stays on top of the base and stays dry. Waste water is contained down below in the base. Frame posts for the shower enclosure are mounted on the shower base. This set of setup is difficult to be transported. They are bulky and require complex assembling and disassembling.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,231,673B1 described a portable shower stall for handicap use, featuring a folding shower enclosure and soft base tray for waste water collection. Under closer examination, this prior art has several drawbacks:
1. Referring to FIG. 1 of this prior art, the shower enclosure frame 12 has only three panels—two side panels 18 and one rear panel 16. The front side of the enclosure is left open, and therefore, would allow water spray to escape during shower;
2. The base tray 30 is complete by fastening the front flap 36 to the side flaps 34 with the two hook-and-loop fasteners 38. Hook-and-loop fasteners are generally not used in watertight applications;
3. The front flap 36, which is made of flexible plastic material, lacks support between the fasteners 38. Its sagging could compromise the water holding capability of the base tray 30. Some sort of supporting rail could be added to the frame 12 to give the front flap something to be wrapped onto, at the expense of more work for the user.
The flaps of the base tray need to be wrapped onto the frame before the shower and unwrapped after the shower. All the work takes place at floor level, where the base tray stays. In the present invention, this work is entirely eliminated.